7/3/13 – Life was tough in the Tenements

Woke to sleet today and Peter was sick (again) so he stayed in bed. I went over to Helmsley on the Park and collected Hans and Sue Sauer and we walked around the corner to visit the 24/7 Apple Store and FAO Schwartz’ Toyshop. Great toys in both venues!

Took a cab down to the corner of Delancey and Orchard to the Tenement Museum. As we were a little early for our ‘Immigrant Hardship’ Tour we went on a short walking tour around the local area. This took us through the Essex Market, a fresh produce market opened in 1940, then down Broome Street to the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Synagogue where we saw quite clearly the evidence of the hardships that had been presented to us in the short history film we had watched at the Tenement Museum.

Many of the churches that were built for one faith and ethnic group were used by others as history rolled on and the countries of origin of the residents of the surrounding tennements changed from German, Irish and Italian to Jewish, Chinese and Puerto Rican. This synagogue had clearly once been a Catholic church, judging by its gothic design and appearance!

We then moved on from the synagogue to a kosher pizza place for a slice, until we discovered, right next door, a beautiful trendy little store selling the most heavenly donuts. These donuts were all dough on the outside and all sweet oozey filling on the inside. They had a huge range of flavours like – crème brulee, peanut butter and chocolate, vanilla bean and blackberry jam, cashew and orange blossom!  We stayed there and gorged ourselves until it was time to return to the Tenement Museum for our tour.

The tour was outstanding both for the accuracy and authenticity of the information conveyed but also, and perhaps more importantly, for the fact that this was a real tenement building in which each little apartment had been lovingly and meticulously ‘peeled back’ and restored to how it was in a different era in time, with the result that  each flat now tells both a part of the general story of the distinct waves of immigration that built this city, as well as the specific family story of the particular occupants of that flat at that particular place and time. We heard the stories and saw the living conditions of a German family in the 1860s and an Italian family in the 1930s. In total, this little building of just seven floors and 20 apartments, saw more than 7000 immigrants pass through its doors between 1860 – 1935. Interestingly, in 1935 the building was shut down and the tenants thrown out on the street because the newly enacted New York City ‘building code’ (which was meant to look after the tenants of such buildings) made it too expensive to renovate, especially when the owners could make almost as money from just renting out the space on the ground floors as commercial properties and the spaqce on the upper floors as warehouses.   

Sue and I then dispatched Hans off to a cigar shop in mid-town in search of Costa Rican cigars while we girls took a cab to Macey’s. Boy is this place run down! The ground floor is presentable but beyond that I was embarrassed with the peeling paint and wooden escalators - so we left.  

 

We walked and talked all the way over to Lexington Avenue and 42^nd Street, where we entered a space which is, nowadays, anything but run down.  Welcome to the magical world of Grand Central Terminal. Peter (who had finally managed to struggle out of his sick bed) and Hans met us at 5pm ‘under the clock’ in the Main Concourse where we rented four headsets and did the ‘self guided audio walking tour’ of the building. We thoroughly enjoyed being taken back in time to the world when trains were glamorous and the Vanderbilts (who had originally built this station as the ultra-glamorous NYC terminus for their railroad in 1913) ruled the tracks!

We finished the night off with a seafood platter at the Oyster Bar, the only commercial tenant that has remained continuously in residence in the Terminal since the place opened a century ago. Best bit of the night was when Hans asked for ‘low fat’ apple pie … Hans was extremely disappointed when his order arrived without the two huge scoops of ice cream that had appeared on Peter’s plate but, when he complained, the Mexican waiter casually replied “Sir. That is the way we do ‘low fat’ apple pie here!” Sue and I cracked up – but we couldn’t agree on what was funniest, the look on Hans’ face, the look on the waiter’s face or the sight of Peter, eyes down, with his spoon well into his ice cream!

Tip for the night – Brooklyn Local No 1 beer brewed by the Brooklyn Brewing Company (a local boutique brewery) comes in a champagne bottle with a wired cork – it’s 100% bottle re-fermented a technique rarely used now, even in Europe where it originated. This ‘craft beer’ tastes and smells great but, as the boys discovered when they got the bill, at $20 for every 750ml bottle it is not cheap.